This invention relates to a recording/reproduction system with a fine picture quality for a helical scan-type video tape recorder (VTR), and more particularly to the recording/reproduction system which is adaptable for a recording format used in home-use VTR.
Two-head helical scan type VTRs have widely been employed in home use VTRs. In the recent VTRs, the track pitch is narrowed, to allow a long time record and reproduction of the video information. For improvement of the picture quality, the high band system is realized, and for improvement of sound quality, the recording system in which the sound signal is frequency modulated and superposed on the video signal is realized.
However, the picture quality of the home-use VTR is still unsatisfactory when compared with that of the off the air TV picture. This is due to the facts that the band width is unsatisfactorily wide, and S/N performance is unsatisfactory. In the currently employed color signal recording system, the color subcarrier which is called color-under is converted into carriers of low frequencies before recording. In this recording system, the color signal is inevitably phase varied due to the time base error, so that the color irregularity occurs and S/N is unsatisfactory. Therefore, it is considered that when this type of recording system is used, there is a limit for improvement to the picture quality. Recently, video disks prevails, and the market needs production of the home-use VTRs with high picture quality. Therefore, there is a strong demand for development of the color signal recording system with high picture quality.
There has been developed the broadcasting VTRs requiring high picture quality, in which the video tape having a 1/2 inch width (cassette), widely used by home-use VTRs, can be used for recording the video signal. To satisfy the broadcasting performances, this recording system employs the video signal recording system, which is different from that of home-use VTRs. Specifically, the luminance signal (Y) and the color signal (C), which are contained in the video signal, are separated from each other. The color signal is time-compressed before recorded in the tracks provided exclusively for it. This recording system can effectively improve picture quality, but it is not compatible with the home-use VTRs currently used because these are under different rules. For these reasons, there are strong demands for the VTRs based on new recording systems, which are adaptable for the current recording format widely used by home use VTRs.